A top-quality hose is a worthwhile investment. It ensures that you can get the job done efficiently and with ease. These sturdy hoses are made of rubber and have metal fittings. The hot weather this summer has meant lots of watering. I recently spent most of a day going to my landscape clients to make sure their gardens and new plantings were well-watered. Using timers, sprinklers, soakers and hundreds of feet of hose, I had four new garden…
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How to make watering easier and more efficient. Soaker hoses ensure that water percolates to the root zone of your plants. This Flat Soaker Hose is especially good for smaller beds because it forms curves easily. Whenever I plant a new flower garden for one of my clients, I give the “watering talk,” in which I underscore the importance of watering during the first year. I note that standing at the garden’s edge with a hose and…
…nd what went into producing it. So how come I can’t have the right to know what’s in the food I buy in the store? That’s the goal of the Just Label It campaign, which last month submitted a record-breaking 1.1 million signatures to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in favor of labeling genetically engineered (GE) foods. And in polls by ABC, MSNBC, NPR, the Washington Post, Consumer Reports and others, consistently…
Flat-leaf parsley I used to do much more canning and freezing than I do now. With our household down to just two, we’re cooking smaller meals and don’t need to have as much food around. But there are still quite a few garden crops that I squirrel away in my freezer or pantry, and one of those is parsley. I can chop and freeze a huge basket of fresh-picked parsley in about 15 minutes. With a half-dozen sessions like that throughout the…
Over the years, I have become a firm believer in the importance of fertilizing plants. One of my favorite pots this season (see plant list below) with two of the three fertilizers that I’m applying and one of my trusty watering cans. Over the years, I have become a firm believer in the importance of fertilizing plants. Now, when there’s a pest problem in my garden, I run for a fertilizer rather than a pest control. In most cases, I…
Soil and shade conditions that weaken turfgrasses are ideal for moss growth. Soil and shade conditions that weaken turfgrasses are ideal for moss growth. How to get rid of moss in the lawn is one of the frequently asked questions on our Ask An Expert question-and-answer service. In the same way that fever is a symptom and not the disease itself, moss is an indicator of underlying problems. Lawn grasses need moist, fertile, well-draine…
…tes hosts a trailer, brings it in when it is full, and returns with an empty one,” Cline says. Steve Cline sorts plastic pots and cell packs at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s recycling program, where they collect 100,000 to 140,000 pounds of horticultural plastic every year. Cline, former director of the Garden’s Kemper Center for Home Gardening, started the program in 1998. The botanical garden’s Pots to Planks program s…
…en the earth-friendly ones. At first, I tried neem, a relatively harmless spray that does wonders on aphids and controls blackspot on roses. It worked to control the larvae the first year, but I had to spray frequently (every 10 to 15 days). The second year, I couldn’t keep the larvae under control. My lily crop was hit hard, and I got few blooms. Last year, I decided to resort to a systemic called imidacloprid. The results were instantaneo…
Though cold winds chill the air and snow blankets much of the U.S., pesticide use remains a hot topic — and not only among gardeners. The most recent comments come from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Council on Environmental Health, whose December 2012 policy statement makes a clear link between pesticide exposure and children’s health problems. Published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the 60,000-member AAP, “Pesticide Ex…